Comments on: Episode 69: The Yellow Wallpaper

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:04:14 +0000

I’ve just realized from your review about the room with the yellow wallpaper where the Agnes Moosehead’s character goes insane, that it is already a padded cell. The bed bolted to the floor, the bars, mean it’s for an inmate. The husband and sister try to convince her it’s a guest room but she is definitely confined. They already believe she’s mad and are humoring her hoping she’ll improve. Does Jenny ever call her anything but “pet?” She’s a captive and she was never going to leave there a free woman. Such a great story !

By: Smuggins

Smuggins — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 12:31:38 +0000

Two things. Never heard the story before, but found it suspenseful and while ‘a twist’ is a common characteristic of old time radio, I feel it is more the domain of the shocker or sensationalist kind of radio. There are many Poe stories without such a twist. I think the previous Tell Tale Heart adaption was a clumsy attempt at a twist, so I can see where Joshua is coming from.

Speaking to the malice of the Doctor and his sister, there is a single comment the sister makes that really shows the evil of the times and those people (who are stand ins for a paternalistic society that didn’t tell wives what their medical results, were, but rather the husband). That line is “Shes just doing it to prove you wrong”. So much to unpack, but the idea that the man could never be wrong, and that anything that might prove him such is just a conspiracy by women to undermine him. It shows a real malice by the sister towards the wife and that the Doctor goes along with it…

By: Patrickm

Patrickm — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 04:36:04 +0000

Jesus H. Christ

By: David Feldmann

David Feldmann — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 14:44:44 +0000

Classic radio drama! I’d never heard this until just now.

By: Tim Uren

Tim Uren — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 19:46:36 +0000

In reply to patrick jean. (I'm moving this to The Yellow Wallpaper, I think that's the episode you mean...) Those sinister implications about both Jerry and the room seem disturbingly plausible. Thanks for the comment!

By: Doug Shaw

Doug Shaw — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 18:56:34 +0000

This is the kind of creepy that gets under your skin. I was physically shrinking at times, my shoulders hunching in.

By: patrick jean

patrick jean — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:24:41 +0000

I listen to your show this morning a dark journey. I had never heard the show before in my take was that the husband and Jerry could’ve been possibly in some sort of relationship and also of the room I was thinking and then possibly a torture area or a place for children were abused initially specially with the rings And the marks on the wall. It was a great performance and thanks a lot for bringing this to me

By: Christian Neuhaus

Christian Neuhaus — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:57:29 +0000

Regarding Joshua’s invitation at 43:31 to listeners who weren’t familiar with the original story: I was not and I confess that if I’d heard this without any introduction, I would have expected a “Suspense twist” – like the woman committed some horrible act in the room and suffered amnesia, and the ugly wallpaper was there to disguise the room and avoid triggering her memory.

By: Mark Forrester

Mark Forrester — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:59:58 +0000

Thank you so much for doing this! Agnes Moorehead is, indeed, amazing. It was interesting to hear you all discuss the episode, especially situating it in radio history, both in terms of casting and the context of the typical “Suspense” approach.